Back on a Ship

It’s been a little over a week since I signed on my new ship.  The travel to get to the ship was long and as always there were a few minor bumps along the way.  I was sitting in a 777 to fly from Detroit to Tokyo when the pilot asked everyone to exit the plane as the toilet system was broken and he would not attempt to fly over 14 hours with no working toilets.  Luckily maintenance fixed the issues quickly and we were on our way with only a minor delay.  Finally I arrived in Hong Kong after 11pm, went through immigration, and got to my hotel after 1am.  The following morning my alarm went off at 6am to get up, eat breakfast, check out, and get on a shuttle bus taking everyone to the ship.

All in all it is nice to be back.  Taking the last year and a half to two years off helped remove the burnout that most people being to suffer after a few years at sea.  I’ve found the little things don’t bother me as much as they used to.

I wish I had wonderful stories of getting out in port to share, but so far I have stayed on the ship.  There is new music to learn, new trainings to take, and a routine to settle into.   I did this same itinerary 2 years ago and we also have one more cruise with the same ports so I am not rushing myself to get off the ship.  After all, this is work even if in exotic places around the world.

It has been fun getting back into playing with the orchestra on the ship.  I have been onboard for 9 days and every single night has been playing style of show with different entertainers.  My very first day I had to play a production show with the orchestra and the production cast of singers and dancers.  So imagine traveling over 24 hours, going through 13 time zones, getting less than 5 hours of sleep, and then get up early and go through a day of meetings and then at night having to play a one hour show with click tracks, tempo changes, and style changes in front of the passengers.  Luckily I didn’t experience jet lag and I was able to play through the show with only one run through.

A couple of things that I have experienced in the past week and a half are worth noting.  Some of them I have written about before and some of them are new points.

1) Be organized when you pack.  Don’t pack any important documents in your checked luggage.  Get a folder and place all of your documents there so you know right where they will be when you need them.  I arrived after 24 hours of sitting on planes and was 13 hours ahead of my home time zone and I found myself having to pull out all my documents to present to port immigration authorities in the Hong Kong airport.  I was so exhausted, but it was easy because I had put all the documents together in one folder in a carry-on bag.  The tie spent organizing beforehand definitely paid off.

2)  When you first get to the ship, be friendly and introduce yourself to people.  First impressions are important and can last a long time, so if you make a bad impression on your first day it may take the entire length of your contract to overcome it.

3)  While the passengers may be there on vacation, the crew is not.  If you are joining a ship, make sure that you are settled into a routine before you go off the ship.  Make sure that you can play through all of your music and can handle all of your work responsibilities first.  Many musicians I am working with were shocked I was staying onboard when we were in some great ports.  But I am there to work and I do not want to let anybody else down just because I am new to the ship.  It is rather selfish to play poorly in the evening shows because you are too busy off the ship sightseeing around town.  The ports will still be there, and most of the time the ship goes to the same ports several times over so there is no rush.

4)  Always check with your supervisor and the training board for any upcoming training.  Due to port schedules, management meetings, and other reasons the trainings can get moved quite often.  I’ve had one particular training canceled three times just in my first week onboard.  I’ve had several moved to other locations or to other times so it is important to keep up with the latest information.

5)  Finally, learn to go with the flow.  This might not be easy to understand for some people, but the world does not revolved around you.  There are oftentimes other people and circumstances to take into consideration.  Whenever you are dealing with large groups of people there is always a need for flexibility.  The day I signed onto the ship, I woke up at 6am after just 4 hours of sleep and we were rushed to the ship.  Then we waited outside of the ship for 2 hours.  Yes, it was frustrating and we were all talking about the extra sleep that we could have all had after long travel days.  But there was nothing we could do about it.  In just one week we’ve had port times cut short, rehearsal times change, trainings changed and canceled, and even discussed about missing a port altogether (we are currently in Bangkok and due to the protests we almost had to skip it completely this cruise).  At that point you have a choice, either fight the change or learn to let it go and be flexible.  If I can give a little advice, the end result is going to be the same so there is no reason to fight it along the way.

Being back has brought back a lot of memories from earlier contracts.  It is like a little reunion because I am working with several people I have worked with before on different ships.  It’s also nice to work to meet new people and build new friendships.

So now this blog will start to incorporate some new stories and some new travels.  Each week is different so hopefully there will be some good material.  But in any case, I have some music to look over!